''In Darkness'' ( pl, W ciemności) is a 2011 Polish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written by David F. Shamoon and directed by

Agnieszka Holland Agnieszka Holland (born 28 November 1948) is a Poles, Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej ...

. It was nominated for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in ...

. Based on true events during

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, the film tells about

Leopold Socha Leopold "Poldek" Socha (August 28, 1909 – May 12, 1946) was a Polish sewage inspector in the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). During World War II, Socha used his knowledge of the city's sewage system to shelter a group of Jews from Nazi pers ...

, a sewer worker in the Polish city of

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

. He used his knowledge of the city's sewer system to shelter a group of Jews who had escaped from the

Lwów Ghetto , location = Lwów, Zamarstynów(German-occupied Poland) , date = 8 November 1941 to June 1943 , incident_type = Imprisonment, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, forced abortions and sterilization , perpetrators = , par ...

during

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust. ...

Plot

''In Darkness'' is a dramatization of a rescue of Jewish refugees during World War II in the German-occupied city Lwów (Lemberg in German, L'viv in Ukrainian). For over a year, a Polish Catholic sewer maintenance worker and burglar,

along with his friend and co-worker Szczepek Wróblewski, hid and cared for a group of Polish Jews who had escaped the massacres and deportations during the liquidation of the

. At first the men demand daily payment for their help but they continue to aid the group long after the Jews' money has run out and aiding them had become ever more dangerous. The Jewish ghetto had been established in 1941 and the Nazis decided to liquidate it in June 1943. The Soviets took over Lwów city in July 1944, by which point Socha's band made up 10 of the fewer than 1,000 surviving Jews in the city. Socha's and Wróblewski's actions and those of their wives led to their recognition as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

recipients.

Cast

Robert Więckiewicz Robert Więckiewicz (born 30 June 1967) is a Polish film and television actor from Nowa Ruda, Poland. In 2013, he received Best Actor Award at the Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film fes ...

Benno Fürmann Benjamin "Benno" Fürmann (; born 17 January 1972) is a German film and television actor. He is known for his lead role in the 2008 film ''The North Face'', where he plays Toni Kurz based on the 1936 Eiger climbing disaster in Switzerland. Li ...

as Mundek Margulies *

Agnieszka Grochowska Agnieszka Grochowska (born 31 December 1979) is a Polish film and theatre actress. Life She was born on 31 December 1979 in Warsaw. She graduated from the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, National Academy of Dr ...

as Klara Keller *

Maria Schrader Maria Schrader (born 27 September 1965) is a German actress, screenwriter, and director. She directed the award-winning 2007 film ''Love Life'' and the 2020 Netflix miniseries '' Unorthodox'', for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for O ...

as Paulina Chiger *

Herbert Knaup Herbert Knaup (born 23 March 1956) is a German film and television actor. He is perhaps best-known to international audiences for his supporting roles in '' Run Lola Run'' (1998) and ''The Lives of Others'' (2006). Selected filmography * ''Coda ...

as Ignacy Chiger *

Kinga Preis Kinga Anna Preis (born 31 August 1971, in Wrocław) is a Polish film and theatre actress. Life and career She graduated from Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in 1996. In 2006, she received the Zbigniew Cybulski Award for best young act ...

as Wanda Socha * Krzysztof Skonieczny as Szczepek Wróblewski * Julia Kijowska as Chaja *

Marcin Bosak Marcin Bosak (born 9 September 1979 in Łódź) is a Polish actor. He appeared in more than twenty-five films since 1995. Biography He was born and raised in Łódź. He has a younger sister, Anna, finalist of the You Can Dance: Po prostu tań ...

as Janek Weiss * Jerzy Walczak as Jakob Berestycki * Michał Żurawski as Bortnik *

Piotr Głowacki Piotr Głowacki (born 29 March 1980) is a Polish actor. He appeared in more than sixty films since 2004. Awarded with the most prestigious prize for a young actor of his generation in 2014, Głowacki has since played in major Polish and internatio ...

as Jacek Frenkiel * Zofia Pieczyńska as Stefcia Socha * Etel Szyc as Szona Grossman * Andrzej Mastalerz as Sawicki * Ida Łozińska as Rachela Grossman * Laura Lo Zito as Irena * Alexander Levit as Kovalev * Frank Köbe as Gustav Wilhaus

Production and release

Dedicated to

Marek Edelman Marek Edelman ( yi, מאַרעק עדעלמאַן, born either 1919 in Homel or 1922 in Warsaw – October 2, 2009 in Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the ...

, the film is a Polish-German-Canadian coproduction, with a screenplay by Canadian writer David F. Shamoon."Canadian roots grow at Oscars"
''

The Chronicle-Herald ''The Chronicle Herald'' is a broadsheet newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada owned by SaltWire Network of Halifax. The paper's newsroom staff were locked out of work from January 2016 until August 2017. ''Herald'' management cont ...

'', 17 February 2012. ''In Darkness'' is based on the book ''In the Sewers of Lvov'' (1990) by Robert Marshall. The last survivor of the group, Krystyna Chiger, published a memoir of her experience, '' The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow'' (2008). It was not a source for the film, as Holland was unaware of the book prior to the film's release This was the first full-length film shown at the 23rd Polish Film Festival in America in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on the Opening Night Gala.

Reception

As of October 2020, a majority of film critics have given the film a positive review. ''In Darkness'' has an approval rating of 88% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 111 reviews, and an average rating of 7.59/10. It also has a score of 74 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". A review by

Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mov ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' called it "a harrowing nail-biter of a movie".

Ella Taylor Ella Taylor is a film critic who was a staff writer for the ''LA Weekly'' and Village Voice Media, writing film and book reviews, interviews, profiles, and cultural and political commentary from 1989 to 2009, when she and much of the staff were la ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

wrote ''In Darkness'' "satisfies for the intensity of the performances and for the artful contrasting of life on the teeming streets of L'viv with life and death in the dim, rat-infested sewers", adding that it "is often a thrilling adventure picture — as if Anne Frank had found an Inglourious Basterd to help her make The Great Escape".

Ty Burr Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...

of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' called the film "a harrowing Holocaust tale, but one that speaks to humankind's capacity to endure, to fight on in the face of terrible cruelty", adding that Holland "elicits taut performances from a strong cast".

David Denby David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014. Early life and education Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' called it "the most volatile that Holland has directed. With a distinguished, hardworking cast of German and Polish actors", noting that "honesty is the movie's greatest strength".

Todd McCarthy Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for ''Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...

of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' said this "harrowing, engrossing, claustrophobic and sometimes literally hard to watch ��robust, arduous drama is more ironic and multi-faceted than most such tales and should be well received by the considerable art house audience worldwide partial to the subject matter".

Joe Morgenstern Joe Morgenstern (born October 3, 1932) is an American writer and retired film critic. He wrote for ''Newsweek'' from 1965 to 1983, and then for ''The Wall Street Journal'' from 1995 to 2022. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2005. Morgen ...

of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' said this "brave epic" film's "suspense, derived from a true story, is excruciating and inspiring in equal measure". A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called ''In Darkness'' "suspenseful, horrifying and at times intensely moving ��touching, warm and dramatically satisfying". On the other hand,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' dismissed the film as redundant and inferior to ''

Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel ''Schindler's Ark'' by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film fo ...

'' which was "more entertaining" in his view. Michael Atkinson of ''

the Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' claimed that "Holland does skirt the ethical entrapment of ''Schindler's List'' (over-lionizing the Aryan rescuer)", adding: "It's not fair, but there it is: We've been here before." The German authorities in occupied Poland referred to non-Jews, including Poles, as Aryans; colloquially, documents proving one's non-Jewish identity were called "Aryan papers", and the areas prohibited to Jews were known collectively as "the Aryan side". the Polish districts of citi

David Edelstein David Edelstein (born 1959) is a freelance American film critic who has been the principal film critic for ''Slate'' and ''New York'' magazine, among others, and has appeared regularly on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' and ''CBS Sunday Morning'' programs. O ...

of ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

'' wrote: "In outline, ''In Darkness'' is a standard conversion melodrama, but little within those parameters is easy. The darkness lingers into the light."

Mick LaSalle Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broaden ...

of ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' called it "an extraordinary movie, and somehow good art ��a gripping piece of history and also an exploration into the mysteries of the human soul", and gave it "the highest recommendation".

Awards

''In Darkness'' was nominated for the

at the

. Nominated alongside the official Canadian nominee ''

Monsieur Lazhar ''Monsieur Lazhar'' is a 2011 Canadian French-language drama film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Mohamed Saïd Fellag, Sophie Nélisse and Danielle Proulx. Based on ''Bashir Lazhar'', a one-character play by Évelyne de la Chenel ...

'', it attracted attention in the country for marking the first time in the history of

Cinema of Canada Cinema in Canada dates back to the earliest known display of film in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, in 1896. The film industry in Canada has been dominated by the United States, which has utilized Canada as a shooting location and to bypass British fil ...

that had its two films nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar in the same year. At the International Valladolid Film Festival (SEMINCI),

won the award for Best Director. The film garnered several award nominations at the

32nd Genie Awards The 32nd Genie Awards ceremony was held on March 8, 2012 to honour films released in 2011.

, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Shamoon. It also received the Grand Prix at the 7th Batumi International Art-house Film Festival.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:In Darkness 2011 war drama films 2011 films 2010s historical drama films Canadian war drama films Films directed by Agnieszka Holland German war drama films 2010s German-language films 2010s Polish-language films Ukrainian-language films Polish war drama films Holocaust films Films set in the 1940s World War II films based on actual events Polish historical drama films History of Poland on film Films set in Ukraine Yiddish-language films German World War II films Polish World War II films Sony Pictures Classics films 2011 multilingual films Canadian multilingual films German multilingual films Polish multilingual films Canadian World War II films 2010s Canadian films 2010s German films Films about Polish resistance during World War II

Plot

Cast

Production and release

Reception

Awards

See also

References

External links